ERIC Number: EJ1345644
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 30
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1048-9223
EISSN: EISSN-1532-7817
Word Knowledge and Lexical Access in Monolingual and Bilingual Migrant Children: Impact of Word Properties
Luniewska, Magdalena; Wójcik, Marta; Kolak, Joanna; Mieszkowska, Karolina; Wodniecka, Zofia; Haman, Ewa
Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, v29 n2 p135-164 2022
Word knowledge and the speed of word processing in monolingual children and adults are influenced by word properties, such as the age of acquisition (AoA), imageability, and frequency. Understanding how different properties of words contribute to the ease of processing by bilingual children is a critical step for establishing models of childhood bilingualism. However, a joint impact of these properties has not been so far assessed in bilingual children. Here, we compared the impact of AoA, imageability, and frequency on accuracy and response times in picture naming and picture recognition tasks in monolingual and bilingual children. We used Cross-Linguistic Lexical Tasks to test 45 monolingual children (aged 4 to 7 years) and 45 migrant bilingual children in their L1 (Polish). Word AoA, imageability, and frequency independently affected the accuracy and response times in both picture naming and picture recognition tasks. Crucially, bilingual children were more sensitive to word characteristics than their monolingual peers: Bilingual children's accuracy was particularly low for words of high AoA (in the picture recognition task) and for words of low frequency (in the picture naming task). Also, the increase in response times for low-imageable and low-frequent words was particularly salient in bilingual children. The results suggest a new area of interest for further studies: the question of whether bilinguals and monolinguals show different sensitivity to psycholinguistic factors, and if so, does that sensitivity change with age or language exposure?
Descriptors: Immigrants, Bilingualism, Polish, Native Language, Accuracy, Vocabulary Development, Language Processing, Monolingualism, Age Differences, Reaction Time, Naming, Pictorial Stimuli, Task Analysis, Comparative Analysis, Recognition (Psychology), Psycholinguistics, Second Language Learning, Preschool Children, Contrastive Linguistics, English (Second Language), Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom; Poland
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A